As President Clinton revoked several abortion restrictions Friday, activists on both sides of the volatile issue marked the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made most abortions legal.Opponents of the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, handed down by the Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 1973, acknowledge they face a tougher political landscape with an administration sympathetic to abortion rights.But abortion foes refuse to concede that any national consensus exists on the issue.

For Florida voters, November's ballot is practically a novella. Self-indulgent state lawmakers packed it with 11 proposed constitutional amendments, with summaries in some cases that run into hundreds of words. It's easier for lawmakers to put their proposals on the ballot than it is for citizens, and lawmakers don't have to heed the same 75-word limit on summaries that citizens do. Easy for them, hard for you. It could be Tallahassee's motto. County elections supervisors fear this year's amendment glut could actually depress turnout, as some voters linger while trying to make sense of all the proposals and other voters tire of waiting.

A governor who doesn't seem to know exactly what he wants. Lawmakers who don't want to do anything. Hordes of uncompromising advocates who will not yield an inch.These are the ingredients of the special session Gov. Bob Martinez has called for Oct. 10-13 to restrict the availability of abortions in Florida.Mixed together, they could be volatile. But are more likely to result in political inertia.''If I was a betting man I wouldn't want to make the bet that something would pass,'' said Rep. Steve Press, D-Delray Beach.

In the 1988 presidential election, Republicans successfully hanged Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis with Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who committed a rape and assault after he was furloughed. Horton was free because Dukakis, as Massachusetts governor, vetoed a bill that would have stopped furloughs for first-degree murderers. That allowed GOP candidate George H.W. Bush to blast Dukakis as a typical liberal, a "card-carrying member of the ( American Civil Liberties Union )

Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing states to restrict abortion has turned up the volume again on that national debate. But Florida needs to leave well enough alone.The privacy provision of the Florida Constitution guarantees the right of a woman in this state to choose to have an abortion. Anyone even thinking of tinkering with that protection is wasting the state's time and money.In 1989, then-Gov. Bob Martinez learned that lesson the hard way. After a similar Supreme Court decision, he called a special legislative session to try to get lawmakers to restrict abortions.

Gov. Bob Martinez was hurt politically Wednesday when legislators rejected his proposed abortion restrictions, but not even diehard Democrats saw the wound as fatal.Some Republicans acknowledged the governor's handling of the abortion issue had created problems for him and their party, but others said he gained at least as much as he lost.''Somewhat victorious'' was Martinez's assessment.Ending Martinez's 4-day special session on abortion restrictions two days early, lawmakers killed his proposals in committee.

The nation's bitter battle over abortion rights shifts Wednesday from statehouse politics and street protests to the somber chambers of the Supreme Court.The justices will hear arguments on a Pennsylvania law that requires a woman seeking to end her pregnancy to wait 24 hours for the medical procedure and to receive state-sponsored information on fetal development and alternatives to abortion.Both anti-abortion and abortion-rights leaders expect the Supreme Court to uphold Pennsylvania's power to enact these restrictions, thereby further eroding the broad abortion rights guaranteed in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.

Rhea Chiles-MacKinnon wrote Gov. Bob Martinez a letter last year in which she described abortion as a ''horrible, painful, cruel act of violence.''Now she's in the awkward position of being an anti-abortion activist whose father, former U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles, is running against Martinez as the pro-choice candidate for governor.Her views have been injected into the campaign by both sides. Abortion opponents quote articles in which she has described abortion as murder. Supporters question whether Chiles has refused to campaign on the issue because of her feelings.

For Florida voters, November's ballot is practically a novella. Self-indulgent state lawmakers packed it with 11 proposed constitutional amendments, with summaries in some cases that run into hundreds of words. It's easier for lawmakers to put their proposals on the ballot than it is for citizens, and lawmakers don't have to heed the same 75-word limit on summaries that citizens do. Easy for them, hard for you. It could be Tallahassee's motto. County elections supervisors fear this year's amendment glut could actually depress turnout, as some voters linger while trying to make sense of all the proposals and other voters tire of waiting.

After watching their opposition come on strong and grab most of the attention over the last three months, Volusia County abortion opponents are launching a counterattack.Since the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door in July for state governments to impose some restrictions, abortion rights advocates have lobbied Florida legislators, holding meetings and rallying support.Although some anti-abortionists have called and written to the county's legislators, there has been little organized activity within their camp.

The platforms that the two political parties publish every four years are a lot like the warranties that come with washers or refrigerators: Nobody ever reads them, but if you do, you find that nothing in them actually applies. This year, though, the Republican platform is getting lots of attention because it contains a plank calling for a human life amendment to the Constitution that outlaws abortion and makes no exception for rape, incest or the health of the mother. That's pretty much the same pro-life plank that was in party platforms in previous campaigns, but it is in the spotlight because of the clueless comments of Congressman Todd Akin — that a woman's reproductive system actually shuts down during rape, preventing conception — and the selection by Mitt Romney of Paul Ryan as his running mate, a man who describes himself as "as pro-life as you can get. " But let me ask you this, as the Republicans convene in Tampa : Are you pregnant and contemplating an abortion?

TALLAHASSEE — After a year of campaigning against Florida's political establishment, Gov. Rick Scott has yet to meet a bill he doesn't like. The Florida Legislature passed 277 bills during its just-concluded 60-day lawmaking session that will require the governor's signature, making a host of changes to growth, regulation, elections, environmental and education laws. And now Scott has to weigh the risks of offending powerful politicians against the rewards of exacting his will on policy and spending.

Hooper's happy ending is not a normal outcome In a Sentinel article ("House OKs abortion bills after fiery debate") on Thursday about the Florida House voting to restrict abortion rights, I was struck by a quote from state Rep. Ed Hooper of Clearwater. He told the story of his daughter who had an unintended pregnancy at a young age. Hooper states that he urged his then-16-year-old daughter to get an abortion. Hooper told her, "You have a choice to make," the operative word being "choice.

Gov. Jeb Bush is opposed to abortion, although he said in a 1998 Voters' Guide questionnaire submitted to the Orlando Sentinel that he favors exceptions in "cases of incest, rape and when the life of the mother is endangered." After being elected governor in 1998, he swiftly signed into law an anti-abortion "Choose Life" license tag that his predecessor, Lawton Chiles, had vetoed. He also signed into law in 1999 a parental-notice requirement for minors seeking an abortion, a law that is still tied up in court.

A never-enforced state law that would require unmarried women under 18 to get parental permission for abortions violates their constitutional right to privacy, an appeals court ruled. The ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal, made public Friday, continues a court ban on the 1987 law, the first major anti-abortion statute in California in 20 years. Attorney General Dan Lungren plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The state has ordered doctors to immediately start requiring parental consent before performing abortions on unmarried women under 18. A federal appeals court in New Orleans refused to reconsider its May 26 order that the state's parental consent law is constitutional, said Hunt Cole, a special assistant attorney general. ''This means our parental consent statute is now fully effective as law,'' Cole said. The law was passed in 1986 but has been tied up in court since a federal judge blocked its enforcement later that year.

Feminists are drafting a reluctant Volusia County legislative delegation into the national furor over abortion.Members of local chapters of the National Organization for Women are lobbying the delegation in hopes of keeping access to abortion, no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court does on the issue.Feminists say they believe the Supreme Court will overturn or revise its 1973 decision that legalized abortion.Their belief remains although the court last week threw out Florida's law that required girls younger than 18 to get the permission of their parents or a judge before having an abortion.

In the 1988 presidential election, Republicans successfully hanged Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis with Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who committed a rape and assault after he was furloughed. Horton was free because Dukakis, as Massachusetts governor, vetoed a bill that would have stopped furloughs for first-degree murderers. That allowed GOP candidate George H.W. Bush to blast Dukakis as a typical liberal, a "card-carrying member of the ( American Civil Liberties Union )

State lawmakers Tuesday adopted tighter restrictions on abortion, requiring women to wait 24 hours and receive information about fetal development after requesting the procedure. Gov. Ben Nelson is expected to sign the measure this week. The bill passed 39-8 on the last day of this year's legislative session. It was modeled on a Pennsylvania law passed in 1989 but yet to be enforced. The Pennsylvania statute remains tied up in federal court, though it was largely upheld last June by the U.S. Supreme Court.